Starbase Ideas

posted on January 9th, 2013, 4:44 am

I have some simple but effective ideas for making starbases more interesting.

1. Ability to upgrade system value. Based on the Tavara versus the starbases, a reasonable function would be to pay 400 dilithium and 400 tritanium for +30 system value upgrade to the starbase.
2. More upgrades of each type. A fully upgraded starbase should be extremely difficult to take down. Consider the battles involving DS9, for example. I would suggest having four upgrades for offense, defense, and system instead of the two for offense and defense that are available now.
3. Special weapons. There are some weapons that require positional stabilizers, an enormous amount of energy, and/or are just too big to mount on a starship, so a starbase should get a unique special weapon or two. Letting it use the special weapons of some of the more common ships that a race has would also be nice. The number of special weapons available might increase with offense upgrades to the starbase.

So, let us see what we get:
Federation: starts at 50/230/25, currently goes to 110/410/25, would go to 170/590/145.
Klingon: starts at 63/200/23, currently goes to 123/380/23, would go to 183/560/143.
Romulan: starts at 50/180/31, currently goes to 110/360/31, would go to 170/540/151.
Dominion: starts at 60/190/25, currently goes to 120/370/25, would go to 180/550/145.
Borg: starts at 50/200/25, currently goes to 110/380/25, would go to 170/560/145.

Of course, I could easily do most of this just for me or as a mod, but I think it would be good to have in the stock game, so I suggest it here.

posted on January 9th, 2013, 8:34 am

I don't want to put you off, bur starbases in the mod are not actually starbases... they are more like outposts, much smaller than DS9 or starfleet spacedock type starbases. The size of a real starbses would roughly be 4-5 times the size of what you see in game (just remember that a starbases could host several galaxy class sized vessels in them). On the other hand.. giving an outpost the ability to upgrade into starbase would be interesting, but I see no real use in that since a starbase can perform the function of all of your bases simultaneously).

posted on January 9th, 2013, 1:55 pm

Myself with KA2, I went with having a single, unbuildable Starbase at the game start, with further small outposts buildable. That way it keeps Starbases as the towering fortresses we've come to expect, but it doesn't make the game impossible when people start building them everywhere once resources become plentiful.

Also, it means that rush tactics are completely negated. If you send your first few Okinawas or pIHs against an enemy Starbase, you won't even leave a smudge on the paintwork...

posted on January 9th, 2013, 5:39 pm

i think it would be good if parts of star bases could be blown off.

(think of stock armada 2 where upgrade centers had the upgrades targetable)

when you upgrade a starbase to have more weapons or shield emmiters or sensors or whatever, they could be targeted (but only if you directly target them, otherwise the attacking ships just target the station in general)

destroyed parts could be rebuilt again (like the tech stations in armada 2)

that way giant fortresses can be built but at the same time can be fairly countered by microing you ships attack.

tho this would either making the weapon turrets numerous and easy to take down, or medium health for less of them.

posted on January 9th, 2013, 6:40 pm

That might be a good idea for the borg, who I always thought were a tiny bit on the weak side in defence. They could have a module based set up with a more advanced home starbase. I also like the idea of the starting base being stronger somehow, maybe give it a longer range so it is more able to defend against early game rush raids.

posted on January 10th, 2013, 5:18 am

i think it would be good if parts of star bases could be blown off.

(think of stock armada 2 where upgrade centers had the upgrades targetable)

when you upgrade a starbase to have more weapons or shield emmiters or sensors or whatever, they could be targeted (but only if you directly target them, otherwise the attacking ships just target the station in general)

destroyed parts could be rebuilt again (like the tech stations in armada 2)

I had that same idea for the turrets, and some ships, in my mod. The idea is that you would build the turret, and it would automatically get the needed items, such as a sensor dish, a small weapons array, and a power core. The only way you could completely destroy the turret is to destroy the main section, which is much more difficult then destroying the weapons or sensors, which can be rebuilt.

For ships, its harder, as the independent pods could shoot through the ship, destroying realism. (and the ship in RL)

Still, stations with independent parts is a perfect idea.